The Principle viii

Posted on September 20, 2008 by pearce

I got home from the opening reception an hour ago, giving me a little time to wind down from this busy day.

CLU Art Department have a booth at the Thousand Oaks Art Festival taking place over the weekend. It’s been really pleasant to spend the day with my colleagues there, meeting people who have an interest in the University’s art programming. 

I left to get ready for the opening at about five, and hoped to head for the pub for a pint at about quarter to seven, but people started arriving for the event as I was trying to get away. I prefer to arrive about thirty minutes late for receptions as a rule, otherwise you can wait uncomfortably for the first people to show up. In this instance there was a steady stream of old friends, colleagues, students and fellow travelers. It was completely delightful to see a few people who I haven’t seen for ages and I had a lovely time explaining things and chatting with everyone. Thanks for coming! Cameron took some pictures, so I hope he’ll let me use some here.

 

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The Principle vii

Posted on September 19, 2008 by pearce

Everything’s ready for the reception. I hope you can make it.

Here’s the release that went out to publicise the show:

Michael Pearce will exhibit his paintings and sculptures from Saturday, Sept. 20, through Friday, Oct. 24, in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture.

An opening reception for the free exhibit will be held at 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 20, in the gallery, which is located in Soiland Humanities
Center on Memorial Parkway on the Thousand Oaks campus. The gallery is open
to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

“The Principle” features works by Michael Pearce that were inspired by
the natural philosophy of renaissance alchemists, whose explorations into
the phenomena of the universe resulted in some remarkable achievements in
early science and were paralleled by their mystical belief in God. Large oil
paintings created over the course of seven years document Pearce’s study of
alchemical philosophy and hermetic imagery.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pearce, of Granada Hills, is an accomplished oil painter, installation
designer and award-winning theatrical scenic designer. His paintings are in
many private collections including those of Andrew Getty, Snoop Dogg and the
Carsey Werner Company. Pearce began teaching at CLU in 2001 and became a
full-time faculty member in 2005. As curator of the Kwan Fong Gallery, he
has organized continuous exhibitions by many well-known outside artists as
well as CLU faculty and students. His Web site and blog can be found at
https://gildedraven.com.

For more information, contact Pearce at (805) 493-3316 or visit
http://www.callutheran.edu/kwan_fong/.

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The Principle vi

Posted on September 19, 2008 by pearce

I finished loading the works into the gallery at midnight, then finished hanging the paintings this morning. I’m rather tired but the show looks really peachy, and it’s been very well received by all the people passing through the gallery. 

Thanks to John, Cameron and Erica things went very smoothly, and if Mike Adams hadn’t helped out with the publicity materials I would be sunk.

This evening I have to get ready for the Thousand Festival taking place over the weekend, so I’m getting a display board setup over there shortly, and will bring a couple of paintings over in the morning. My University Art department has a large booth at the festival where we’ll be able to talk to potential students and their parents. It was fun last year, eating slushies and enjoying the art.

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The Principle v

Posted on September 17, 2008 by pearce

The gallery is well on the way towards having the show installed. I picked up nine sheets of cheap luaun from the Home Depot, ready for the floor covering of gravel, and used the truck to move some of the paintings to the space. I decided that I can’t worry about the Alchemy conference choices  as a predetermining quality for the paintings in this show, so I’m going to just make this show look fantastic, then take the works I need for the alchemy conference out for that weekend. I’ll show all three of the new seven foot wide pieces downstairs, then the crucifixion upstairs. 

As the Crow Flies is half way hung, but the paint isn’t dry on the pieces I did yesterday. It takes longer for paint to dry when it’s over gold, it seems, presumably because the metal prevents it from absorbing into the ground. Cameron helped me to get the paintings hung, looking good so far. Katie Chunko showed up and was a great help fixing hangers into the panels, which made things go much faster.

The motor is suspended but it rocks as it turns, so I’ll need to figure out how to make it steady. I’ll place a wooden circle under it so there’s a solid and cleanable surface to stack the grails upon.

The paintings look good. I’m really pleased to see them in a bigger space, as I don’t think I’ve seen them all together except in the studio. 

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As the Crow Flies xviii

Posted on September 16, 2008 by pearce

Hurrah! I finished painting crows, so apart from getting the eye hooks into the backs of the panels and a little touch up work to the painting the piece is hang-able.

There’s a lot of gold in this show.

I must paint the seated figure more tomorrow. There’s a healthy chunk of time available for work, so I’m looking forward to getting it done. I never did get past the first two layers of paint on him, and there are some very dodgy gold leaf areas on the main panel that I’d like to fix. I’d also like to add a few birds close to the figure, so they are emanating more from him.

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The Alchemy of Demolition ix

Posted on September 16, 2008 by pearce

I loaded the boxes into the car and drove toward the freeway, buoyed by the lovely smell of freshly cut poplar. I don’t think I have ever bent as many finishing nails as I did nailing these things together. The wood is hard and strong.

I resolved to play nothing but Pink Floyd as I worked, as a small tribute to Rick Wright, the keyboard player, whose music has been in my tape player, on my record deck, then in my cd player and finally my iPod for the past two decades, since hearing Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon for the first time at boarding school in the late seventies and early eighties. Wright died yesterday. 

My morning was productive, and I got seven of the pieces of the building almost completely mounted in their boxes. I really like the way these have turned out. Mike Adams took pictures this afternoon, so perhaps we’ll be able to produce some cards of them for CLU alumni who feel particularly involved in the theatre department.

 

I have to trim the remaining three to fit their boxes, and add some backing material to some of them to tidy up their positions, Right now I’ll show them in their present condition, but I’d like to stain and varnish the boxes when I have some time.

I think I’ll call this piece Alchemical Theatre. It will be a gift to the theatre department after the exhibit comes down.

Mike has produced a fabulous little brochure for the show, the first of a series that we are able to produce this academic year thanks to our President Chris Kimball. (Chris ROCKS!)

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The Alchemy of Demolition viii

Posted on September 15, 2008 by pearce

I spent the day in my hot garage shop putting the boxes together using that nice poplar I picked up the other day. I finished this afternoon, so that installation is looking good to go.

Thank God for power tools! Not too long ago I would have had to hand cut and mitre every single piece of wood used in the boxes. All I need to do to these now is paint the interiors black, then mount the gold leafed pieces into them, trapping them inside with the back plate you see resting on top of the quarter round molding set behind the leading edge. Cameron spent a couple of hours touching up gold leaf omissions on the actual pieces, so we’re really close to completion. It’s satisfying to have finished these, but I need to stay focused on what needs to be done to get everything done. Tonight I’ll pick up the circle I need for the cone piece, which I haven’t even started making yet! Fortunately it’s pretty simple, and I know exactly what I need to do to make it, so it’s a simple matter of actually doing the work. I’ll be using my drill press a lot this evening making the holes for the string that will connect the edge of the circle, suspended at ceiling height, to the donut near the floor.

I’m missing painting a bit, looking forward to getting back to the peace and solitude of the studio. 

 

 

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The Principle iv

Posted on September 14, 2008 by pearce

Checklist:

Make all remaining boxes
Paint sun face on the man, finish the painting
Paint the remaining crows
Eye hooks in all crow panels
Get sun disc, drill holes, tie string, suspend
Buy plywood for floor, lay down
Pour the gravel
Find used aquarium for bottles
Get lighting installed
Mount motor to ceiling
Attach crows to wall
Hang paintings
Take easel to gallery
Go to the pub for a break
Finish gilding box pieces
Paint the white bird
Take bottles to gallery, build mound of tree

Email invitation to my list at home

This reads like a slightly bizarre haiku or something. It can only be somewhat cryptic to other people, while being entirely practical to me.

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The Alchemy of Demolition vii

Posted on September 14, 2008 by pearce

I spent a couple of hours cutting the poplar to size and building three of the ten boxes I need for the installation. I am NOT a good carpenter, so it takes me a long time to get these things made. It’s six o’clock and I’m making stupid mistakes now, so I’m stopping, moving into the office to read my encyclopedia of alchemy and relaxing for a while. It’s about time for a drop of that french wine I have stowed in the fridge, now that I think of it.

I’m getting increasingly interested in the relationship between alchemy and early tarocchi playing cards and keep finding images in the encyclopedia that correspond to the images found on the early cards. I bought a well known book, The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family – An Iconographic and Historical Study by Moakley Gertrude that relates the cards to a procession of triumphs, and wonder if these neo-platonic images are related to each other. The book’s almost impossible to find any more, being long out of print.

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As the Crow Flies xvii

Posted on September 13, 2008 by pearce

I found about twelve more crow / raven photos that will be useful for the piece, so I’ve made a photoshop file combining them all onto one transparency, ready to paint on Monday morning. Everything seems to be in decent shape with this piece, but I’m a little concerned to be sure that I have enough birds going in the right direction to make the flock feel right. I want them to arch up and over, then return towards the big painting, so I need to have them face the right way. We also have the simple practical task of screwing hooks into each panel to hang them, but there are so many pieces that this will take a long time.

The big painting will need some gold leaf touchup too, so Monday is going to be all about gold again.

Gold is a very superficial goal for serious thinkers like the alchemists: the symbol has become misunderstood for the mystical search. I’m spending a lot of cash in order to purchase gold to make images that express the quest for the alchemists’ philosophical gold, which seems quite ironic really. 

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